Alleged drug dealer hopes to avoid trial

Dirk Perrefort

Updated 11:23 pm, Monday, April 22, 2013

DANBURY -- The last defendant in a case involving a large-scale area drug ring with ties to the Hell's Angels and organized crime hopes to get a deal from federal prosecutors before his trial begins next week, his attorney said Monday.

Jury selection is expected to begin next Monday in the case of Kevin Lubic, 47, a reputed member of the Hell's Angels in New York who was arrested two years ago, along with Bethel businessman Mark Mansa and Brookfield resident Glenn Wagner.

At the time, authorities stated Mansa used his ties with area police officers to thwart investigators for several years while the ring distributed massive quantities of marijuana in the Danbury area.

A federal prosecutor said the operation distributed more than 1,000 pounds of marijuana in the year before its members' arrest in February 2011. That amount would be worth as much as $7 million, based on local estimates of the current street value.

Local law enforcement officials have repeatedly denied any links the ring may have had to area police departments, including those in Danbury and New Milford.

Federal prosecutors, meanwhile, have shed little light on the allegations. The complaint and arrest warrant affidavit in the case remains sealed.

Jeffrey Chartier, an attorney representing Lubic, said Monday he still hopes to reach a plea deal with prosecutors before jury selection begins.

The case had already been delayed from January, because Chartier was on trial for an unrelated case. Chartier could not be reached for additional comments Monday.

Lubic's co-defendants in the case were sentenced last year after accepting plea deals from federal prosecutors.

Mansa, who was accused of distributing steroids, was sentenced in June to 46 months in prison after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute 100 kilograms or more of marijuana from 2007 to 2011.

Judge Vanessa Bryant described Mansa, 47, as a man who was "willing to sacrifice the very lives of young people in his own community" for his own greed and prosperity.

Prosecutors claimed in earlier court hearings that Mansa sold steroids to area high-school-age athletes.

Wagner, 50, was sentenced in July to 62 months in prison for his role in the ring.

Florida resident Richard Sciaccetano, 63, the fourth man arrested as part of the drug ring; he reportedly has ties to the Bonanno organized crime family. Sciaccetano was sentenced to 36 months in prison in June after pleading guilty to a conspiracy charge.

The relationship between Mansa, Wagner and Lubic began when they were teenagers in the Mahopac, N.Y., area, Wagner has said, adding that Sciacchetano, who lived in Brooklyn, N.Y., at the time, was their marijuana connection.